Verse of the day: Numbers 23:4 And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”
What we see here is the typical mindset of those who do not understand or know the heart of God. Our Lord has revealed enough of Himself in His Word for us to know what is acceptable to Him and what is not. Balaam’s statement to God is evidence that Balaam was clueless about who God is. It was arrogant and presumptuous. However, before we criticize him, let us stop and think how often we do this. How often do we offer God vain sacrifices, thinking that somehow this is what is pleasing to God? The unsaved religious person wastes his/her time offering God religious rituals, and feeble attempts at good works, to try and gain favor with God. As God’s children, some of us sometimes allow the line to get blurred between good works done as a result of our faith, with good works done as a bribe to get what we want. God has made it clear that His preference is not sacrifice, but obedience. In 1 Samuel 15, King Saul made a grave mistake in his thinking. After being told to utterly destroy the Amalekites, Saul spared King Agag, and the best of the animals. When confronted by the Prophet Samuel about his disobedience, Saul used the excuse that he spared the animals as sacrifices to God (1 Samuel 15:21). Samuel’s response to him in 1 Samuel 15:22 was, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” Balaam was no better than Saul in that he not only persisted in doing that which God had already forbidden, but he made the assumption that he could bribe God with sacrifices, having ulterior motives in what he was doing. How often do we disguise our desire to force God’s hand regarding something we want or an outcome we are seeking? We spiritualize it by saying that we are fasting and praying, when in reality we are trying to bend God’s will to our own. God has no desire to receive our feeble sacrifices. This is not to say that He will not call us to sacrifice our time, resources, talents and abilities. However, when He does, it is not about the sacrifice itself, it is about the faith by which we go forward to make that sacrifice (Hebrews 11:6). James 2:18 reads, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Balaam approaches God as if He now owes him a debt just because seven altars and seven sacrifices were made. What is even worse about what Balaam was doing is that the altars were not even built by him, and the sacrifices were not provided by him. It was Balak who did it at Balaam’s command. In 2 Samuel 24 we read the account of God’s judgment on Israel as a result of King David’s sinful census. After repenting for what he did, King David wanted to build an altar and sacrifice unto the Lord, but he first offered to buy the land where this would take place from Araunah the Jebusite, who offered the land and animals for free. King David’s response to him in 2 Samuel 24:24 was, “‘No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” Even when God calls us to make a sacrifice on His behalf, in being a blessing to someone else, it must truly cost us something if it is going to be a genuine sacrifice. In the case of Balaam, and King Saul, the motives of their hearts were wrong. So it is today with those who think that they can offer God of their material goods, or feeble good works, and think that this will bribe God or put God in their debt. God is debtor to no man. Romans 11:35-6 asks and answers, “‘Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’ 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” The bottom line is that the only sacrifice that is truly acceptable to God the Father is the sacrifice made by His Son, Jesus, on the cross at Calvary. Let us give Him thanks today, for the ultimate sacrifice that was made on our behalf. It is the only sacrifice that we can claim before God that will give us favor, gain us eternal life, and make us acceptable before the LORD; not because of who we are or what we have done, but because it is founded on the righteousness of Christ Jesus alone.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
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